Does anybody here drive the speed limit?

In Pennsylvania in 2010, speeding caused 30,520 crashes, 597 of which were fatal, according to Pennsylvania Department of Transportation figures.

And nowhere is speeding more pronounced than on Interstate 80, according to a survey of six Monroe County roadways the Pocono Record conducted this week with a speed gun.

Of 101 vehicles sampled Tuesday afternoon on I-80 East near the Crescent Lake rest area, not a single driver was traveling at or below the 55 mph speed limit.

The highest speed clocked was 79 mph, and the average speed was 14 mph above the limit, the Record found.

The finding is noteworthy because the area sampled — between the I-380 interchange and Scotrun — was close to where a trucker died the day before in a wreck involving four tractor-trailers and a passenger car.

Two prefabricated concrete forms fell off the flatbed on one truck, setting off a chain reaction involving the other vehicles.

It has yet to be determined if speed played a role in that crash.

But what is known is that Daniel L. Snyder, 41, of Youngstown, Ohio — on his way to Brooklyn, N.Y., with a load of aluminum extrusions — died in the resulting collision.

But unsafe speed by a trucker was a factor in a Wednesday morning I-80 crash near Tannersville involving an 18-wheeler and eight cars, state police said.

Police said Leesent Stapleton, 66, of East Stroudsburg, lost control of his rig as he approached traffic already backed up due to road work.

There were no serious injuries.

Just as stunning as the findings on I-80 were speeds recorded Thursday near Hamilton Elementary School on Hamilton South Road in Hamilton Township during dismissal time.

When the school zone lights are flashing, the speed limit is supposed to be 15 mph.

But out of 58 drivers clocked, only two were doing at or below the limit.

Instead, the average speed was found to be 25 mph, with the fastest driver measured going 46 mph.

Parent Jessica Longo Metzgar said she's called police about what she called "the insane drivers" that whip through the school zone when its lights are flashing.

"I am not talking about the lights flashing and people going 20. I'm talking about the lights flashing and people going 65 through it," she said. "I have never seen an area where people have such disregard for school zones as I have here. It's truly sad."

In addition to I-80 and Hamilton Road South, the Pocono Record used a speed gun, similar to that employed by police, to record the speeds of traffic at Monroe County locations on I-380, four-lane Route 209, Route 33 and Old Route 115.

Here's what we found:

I-380 has a higher legal speed limit of 65 mph, with 59 of the 108 vehicles sampled there complying with the law. But the highest speed clocked was 80 mph. A Route 209 South sampling near Beaver Valley Road in Snydersville included 89 vehicles. Of them, 16 were at or below the 55 mph speed limit. The highest speed clocked was 77 mph. The Route 33 South sampling of 109 vehicles near the Saylorsburg flea market included 28 motorists driving at or below the 55 mph speed limit. The highest speed clocked was 70 mph.

Are drivers in our fast-paced and competitive society naturally inclined to push the speed limit?

A 1997 study by three Indiana State University professors points to ego, risk-taking, time pressures, inattention and even a disdain for driving as factors motorists said reinforce their speeding behavior.

"Males agreed more strongly than females with ego-gratification items," according to the study summary. "Younger subjects agreed more strongly with risk-taking and less strongly with time pressure items than older subjects. Females agreed more strongly than males with time pressures, disdain of driving and inattention items."

European studies also point to the thrill of risk-taking and time pressure as factors encouraging speeding.

Competitiveness, too, is a factor in speeding, said La Salle University psychology professor emeritus Jack Rooney.

"We learn that it is a good thing to do things fast and to get ahead of others, and we carry this over to the highway," Rooney said. "I recall one occasion that I thought was a semi-emergency, when I was driving faster than I normally do. When I passed a car, the driver often took it as a challenge and immediately sped up to try to pass me."

Several clusters of motorists driving at close to the same speed — whether speeding or driving under the speed limit — were often observed in the Pocono Record surveys, even as overall speeds varied widely.

There may be a reason some motorists drive fast, but not fast enough to lead the pack.

"There is a concern of getting a (speeding) ticket," Rooney said. "I think that worries them more than getting in an accident."

People who drive at or below the speed limit often are abused by other motorists through honking or hand gestures, Rooney said.

The thrill of the drive is a motivating factor for speeding, said Robert Epstein, a senior research psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Psychology.

"The same people who speed in a car will often do other things for thrills, too — play competitive sports, go kayaking, go on roller coaster rides, and so on," Epstein said.

"Producing a thrill is reinforcing to many people, and people also differ in how sensitive they are to this kind of reinforcement.

"Most people, fortunately, are thrill-averse," he added. "If that weren't the case, the world would be considerably more dangerous than it already is."